Test Anxiety-- What can I do?

[borninthesouth]

My dd is a freshman in high school.  She attended public school until midway through her 6th grade year.  She always did well in school and math was always her weakest subject, but she never got below a B in class.  She can be a lazy student at times and not want to put the level of effort into something that would make it great.  For example: she is an excellent pianist, and was asked to play for a sing along at a party.  All the songs were well within her ability level, but she put off practicing until the day of only to find out that some songs needed some practice-- not much but a little.  She started crying, saying she didn't want to go, etc and I had to calm her down and sit with her while she practiced.  She was able to overcome after 2 hours of practice, but she could have saved both of us a lot of stress by not procrastinating.  Any tests, but particularly math tests leave her the same way.  Tonight we discussed taking an Algebra test this week and straight to tears.  We have been working on Algebra 1 for 1 1/2 years.  It is a long story, but she was not completely honest in her math dealings since beginning homeschool and it has made an already weaker subject even more weak.  But, with tests she completely shuts down.  She seems to understand a skill set and then gets a 25% on the test.  I have her with a very competent tutor who says she feels like she understands, but she makes a huge amount of careless errors.  We are also seeing a therapist to help with anxiety, but I feel like part of the problem is procrastination, poor study skills and careless error.  Any moms out there have a good student that has huge test anxiety?  What can I do?  

[maize]

Mmm, have you considered evaluation for ADHD? Kids can have focus and attention difficulties (leading to procrastination and apparently careless errors) without the hyperactive component. Errors could also be due to poor working memory.

 

I would actually be looking into getting a full neuropsychological evaluation for her, I prefer to have as much information to work with as possible.

Edited December 26, 2016 by maize

[shinyhappypeople]

Can you test her without TESTING her?  Can you skip tests for now and just use her independent work to gauge her understanding?  Unless she's figured out a way to game the daily work, it sounds like the tests aren't giving useful information anyway, so why bother (for now)?

 

The procrastination and planning problems are part of executive function.  I know there are posters on this forum (and definitely the Learning Challenges board) that have a lot of useful information and help.  I hope they chime in :)

 

And yes, an ADHD screen and educational eval would be helpful.  If nothing else, at least you'll know one way or the other whether a cognitive difference is at the root of her struggles.

 

Good luck.   :grouphug: 

Edited December 26, 2016 by shinyhappypeople

[RootAnn]

"[P]rocrastination, poor study skills and careless error" are not anything new for lots of kids. For many kids, that's what they spend a lot of time trying to figure out in high school - how NOT to procrastinate (or how to do it and still get a good end result), how to study effectively, and how to figure out when they are making careless errors before the teacher grades their stuff.

 

There are lots of study skill threads. I've seen lots of how-to-teach-my-kid-not-to-make-careless-errors threads, specifically for math. Procrastination is its own ball of wax. (There's a TED talk you should watch with her. It is only about 14 minutes long. You can watch it first if you like.)

 

I don't know if there is something else going on like some of the other posters have suggested as far as further testing. I just know that my kid(s) fight these things all the time. 

 

I would deal with these things separately and possibly one at a time - knocking out either the biggest issue first or the easiest - whichever you pick. You will probably need to spend 200% more time with her, checking on her, working right at her elbow, helping her, encouraging her, and being her cheerleader (to keep her from getting discouraged because it'll be harder work than slacking off). 

 

Last year, I let my kid do a lot of her geometry work by herself during the first semester. I stepped up my involvement second semester & saw better understanding, better engagement, better work, and more understanding. Even though my kid is doing an online class for math this year, I end up doing most of the chapter's problems right along with her. She finds my mistakes and I help her see hers.

 

I let her Latin slide without checking it every week after the first couple of weeks this year. And she slacked off. So, she's behind. I made her a schedule and committed to checking her work every week. (She checks her own translations, but I'll make sure she's done everything and correct her quizzes.) If she doesn't work on it every day, it gets harder to do because she doesn't remember the chants or the vocab. YES, this makes the whole thing harder!! So, we'll both work harder and my job is to keep her accountable.

 

This doesn't go into the test anxiety at all. There are probably multiple things that go into that - one of which is her anxiety and another is how she doesn't feel confident in her work. If you and her tutor help her to check her daily work (plugging numbers back into equations, for example - I don't mean with an answer key), she will be able to do this on tests to see if she got the right answer before turning it in. (I have one kid who checks her work & then just gives up if she didn't get it right, but that's a separate issue!) 

 

One thing to work on at a time. You at elbow with her all day long. Until she's sick of you. And then stick with it even longer. Model for her how to work hard, stick with something, learn even when it is difficult. Etc. Pick what to work on and how you are going to do it. Keep seeing the therapist. Keep working with the tutor. Pursue testing (which takes time). Baby steps.

[borninthesouth]

I don't think she has ADHD.  I have a child that has been diagnosed with ADHD and though she is distracted sometimes, she can focus when she wants to.  These are great suggestions-- thank you. How do you do all the checking with 5 kids homeschooling?  I'm homeschooling 3 kids with one in public school and I feel very pulled in many directions.  I'm doing a Great Courses study skills course with her and we are doing ACT Prep which has daily math problems that we race to do together.  I will check out the TED talk right now.  Thanks again.  

 

 

"[P]rocrastination, poor study skills and careless error" are not anything new for lots of kids. For many kids, that's what they spend a lot of time trying to figure out in high school - how NOT to procrastinate (or how to do it and still get a good end result), how to study effectively, and how to figure out when they are making careless errors before the teacher grades their stuff.

 

There are lots of study skill threads. I've seen lots of how-to-teach-my-kid-not-to-make-careless-errors threads, specifically for math. Procrastination is its own ball of wax. (There's a TED talk you should watch with her. It is only about 14 minutes long. You can watch it first if you like.)

 

I don't know if there is something else going on like some of the other posters have suggested as far as further testing. I just know that my kid(s) fight these things all the time. 

 

I would deal with these things separately and possibly one at a time - knocking out either the biggest issue first or the easiest - whichever you pick. You will probably need to spend 200% more time with her, checking on her, working right at her elbow, helping her, encouraging her, and being her cheerleader (to keep her from getting discouraged because it'll be harder work than slacking off). 

 

Last year, I let my kid do a lot of her geometry work by herself during the first semester. I stepped up my involvement second semester & saw better understanding, better engagement, better work, and more understanding. Even though my kid is doing an online class for math this year, I end up doing most of the chapter's problems right along with her. She finds my mistakes and I help her see hers.

 

I let her Latin slide without checking it every week after the first couple of weeks this year. And she slacked off. So, she's behind. I made her a schedule and committed to checking her work every week. (She checks her own translations, but I'll make sure she's done everything and correct her quizzes.) If she doesn't work on it every day, it gets harder to do because she doesn't remember the chants or the vocab. YES, this makes the whole thing harder!! So, we'll both work harder and my job is to keep her accountable.

 

This doesn't go into the test anxiety at all. There are probably multiple things that go into that - one of which is her anxiety and another is how she doesn't feel confident in her work. If you and her tutor help her to check her daily work (plugging numbers back into equations, for example - I don't mean with an answer key), she will be able to do this on tests to see if she got the right answer before turning it in. (I have one kid who checks her work & then just gives up if she didn't get it right, but that's a separate issue!) 

 

One thing to work on at a time. You at elbow with her all day long. Until she's sick of you. And then stick with it even longer. Model for her how to work hard, stick with something, learn even when it is difficult. Etc. Pick what to work on and how you are going to do it. Keep seeing the therapist. Keep working with the tutor. Pursue testing (which takes time). Baby steps.

 

[borninthesouth]

She is amazingly musical and creative could that be why she struggles with planning?  I know that really creative people are not always planners.  I always tell her that planning is a learned skill.  I will research executive function.  Thank you!!

 

 

Can you test her without TESTING her?  Can you skip tests for now and just use her independent work to gauge her understanding?  Unless she's figured out a way to game the daily work, it sounds like the tests aren't giving useful information anyway, so why bother (for now)?

 

The procrastination and planning problems are part of executive function.  I know there are posters on this forum (and definitely the Learning Challenges board) that have a lot of useful information and help.  I hope they chime in :)

 

And yes, an ADHD screen and educational eval would be helpful.  If nothing else, at least you'll know one way or the other whether a cognitive difference is at the root of her struggles.

 

Good luck.   :grouphug: 

 

[Guest]

I could've written most of your post a few years ago. My dd14 developed test anxiety diagnosed in 4th grade. It was apparently courtesy of the pressure exerted by her 3rd grade teachers over the state tests. Her 4th grade teacher caught it thank goodness and came to me about it. We worked with the school counselor who played a lot of games with her and we had many, many discussions over the actual importance of those tests (none of hers to worry about- the counselor assured her she would never be held back. She told her tests like those grade schools, not students and dd need not worry about anything but doing her best but not to fret. It helped. ). The irony was this was a well performing kid in most cases. But just like your dd- A's on homework, bomb the math test. Anyway, the test anxiety did improve but always lingered with math until probably last year. I think we are finally past it but it's not been long enough to say with certainty.

 

Here are some of my suggestions.

 

If she's struggling, go back to basics now. Sounds like you may be doing that with the tutor. I encourage you to keep at it. Once math confidence is shot, it's hard to recover. But if she doesn't have the basics she can't process. I told my dd it was akin to building a wall with missing bricks in the base. Eventually the weak spots would cause it to topple when we came to the higher parts of the wall. I tried to make her not see review as a failure on her part, but rather something that her instructors and myself should've caught long ago. That was my lesson learned for trusting a public school to ensure the math basics were covered in spite of my doubts about their quaility and priorotities.

 

Ban yourself and anyone else in the house from saying they're bad at math. Change the discussion. We may not be perfect, but practice brings progress and there's no reason we can't be competent. I found CLE and Khan Academy to be godsends for practice without beating a dead horse.

 

Switch from "tests" to quizzes initially. Have at least once a week. Don't time her. I'm not sure why, but this can take the pressure off. A quiz is less scary than a test. Let her write down formulas on a notecard. Public schools do it- no reason you can't. Introduce tests in later and you decide how you weight them. Possibly offer option to drop or replace lowest score. You're in charge.

 

I'm assuming her homework grades are ok from what you post. So what you're working on is mainly test anxiety. Try to get to the root of where she's freezing. It is the time? It is just the name? Not having access to notes? Once you center in on that it will give you some more direction of where to go.

 

I encourage you to test her every year at a testing facility. Be it ITBS or PSAT or whatever you choose- have her take an administered test out of your house. Let her know it doesn't matter. Only you will see the test and you simply need a guide to let you know where to concentrate for next year. She needs the practice if she is going to college and hopefully you will have overcome this within a year or two. Her scores may actually bring her confidence in her ability. That is what happened in our case. For my dd there was a huge disconnect between how she saw herself academically and what she tested at. I finally had her tested this year after skipping two years to let the public school pressure dissipate. She blew the roof off the ITBS. Huge booster to her confidence. She finally got it- she was actually solid at math. But we had to overcome the public school mentality of GT classes, tutoring and everything else that had covinced her she was less than competent. However had it not worked out that way with the tests, it was a safe place to fail and you do need an impartial picture of where her skills are at.

 

Anyway, this is getting long so I will end but feel free to ask any questions or PM me if you like. Definitely been there, done that.

 

ETA- we started homeschooling in 7th grade. She is now in 9th to give you a timeline. I took her all the way back to 6th and 7th grade work with CLE her 7th grade year to solidify her on decimals and fractions where she was terrible weak leaving public school, as well as basic multiplication skills. She's now on track in Algebra 1 holding an A average without a sweat. We school year round so I'm still hoping she can fit in Calculus possibly as DE her senior year. We shall see!

Edited December 26, 2016 by texasmom33

[RootAnn]

How do you do all the checking with 5 kids homeschooling?  I'm homeschooling 3 kids with one in public school and I feel very pulled in many directions. 

 

:coolgleamA: Well, obviously, I don't always and it bites me! The younger two do all their work "at elbow" - so I don't have to take time to check their work later. I'm there with them for everything. The next two were "at elbow" for 75% of their work last year and did well with it, so they do a lot more independently this year. That means I spend 5-10 minutes checking instead of 20-45 minutes teaching/supervising - per class. Easy to get behind on checking work, so one must be vigilant with oneself! It takes me about an hour to check math & other independent subjects for these two kids. Sometimes I can squeeze it in during the day, but most times, it is a night-time activity.

 

Eldest is mostly independent (due to all her online classes) - so she requires the most checking of the bunch! I do sit with her for math (usually in the evenings), supervise her tests online, check her Latin, look over essays for her Comp class, (taught government to her & some friends last semester), and I'll have to keep up with her Economics this semester. It takes the most time in the evenings, but I'm only checking in with her periodically throughout the day to make sure she's not spending 45 minutes in the bathroom  :leaving:  or otherwise getting off-track on her daily routine.

 

Every year is a balancing act because dynamics change - add a kid, maybe one gets more independent but another one needs more one-on-one help. I'm actually going to redo our daily/weekly schedules this week so that when we restart school next week, I have more time for math with the two boys, more time for spelling/handwriting for the youngest, and the middle two girls will have their afternoons almost completely free because they got their history completely done and are almost done with their science for the year. ( :driving:  Both are independent, check-list subjects that I told them they were done with when they got everything completely finished. Both were subjects that dd#1 took an entire school year plus part of the summer to finish. Different kids!)

[borninthesouth]

This helps so much.  I have been testing her at least once a week and she does fine on all her tests except math. She does pretty well on homework... Still there are a lot a careless errors, but nothing like on the tests.  These are all helpful and hopefully I'm moving in the right direction.  Thank you again!

 

 

I could've written most of your post a few years ago. My dd14 developed test anxiety diagnosed in 4th grade. It was apparently courtesy of the pressure exerted by her 3rd grade teachers over the state tests. Her 4th grade teacher caught it thank goodness and came to me about it. We worked with the school counselor who played a lot of games with her and we had many, many discussions over the actual importance of those tests (none of hers to worry about- the counselor assured her she would never be held back. She told her tests like those grade schools, not students and dd need not worry about anything but doing her best but not to fret. It helped. ). The irony was this was a well performing kid in most cases. But just like your dd- A's on homework, bomb the math test. Anyway, the test anxiety did improve but always lingered with math until probably last year. I think we are finally past it but it's not been long enough to say with certainty.

Here are some of my suggestions.

If she's struggling, go back to basics now. Sounds like you may be doing that with the tutor. I encourage you to keep at it. Once math confidence is shot, it's hard to recover. But if she doesn't have the basics she can't process. I told my dd it was akin to building a wall with missing bricks in the base. Eventually the weak spots would cause it to topple when we came to the higher parts of the wall. I tried to make her not see review as a failure on her part, but rather something that her instructors and myself should've caught long ago. That was my lesson learned for trusting a public school to ensure the math basics were covered in spite of my doubts about their quaility and priorotities.

Ban yourself and anyone else in the house from saying they're bad at math. Change the discussion. We may not be perfect, but practice brings progress and there's no reason we can't be competent. I found CLE and Khan Academy to be godsends for practice without beating a dead horse.

Switch from "tests" to quizzes initially. Have at least once a week. Don't time her. I'm not sure why, but this can take the pressure off. A quiz is less scary than a test. Let her write down formulas on a notecard. Public schools do it- no reason you can't. Introduce tests in later and you decide how you weight them. Possibly offer option to drop or replace lowest score. You're in charge.

I'm assuming her homework grades are ok from what you post. So what you're working on is mainly test anxiety. Try to get to the root of where she's freezing. It is the time? It is just the name? Not having access to notes? Once you center in on that it will give you some more direction of where to go.

I encourage you to test her every year at a testing facility. Be it ITBS or PSAT or whatever you choose- have her take an administered test out of your house. Let her know it doesn't matter. Only you will see the test and you simply need a guide to let you know where to concentrate for next year. She needs the practice if she is going to college and hopefully you will have overcome this within a year or two. Her scores may actually bring her confidence in her ability. That is what happened in our case. For my dd there was a huge disconnect between how she saw herself academically and what she tested at. I finally had her tested this year after skipping two years to let the public school pressure dissipate. She blew the roof off the ITBS. Huge booster to her confidence. She finally got it- she was actually solid at math. But we had to overcome the public school mentality of GT classes, tutoring and everything else that had covinced her she was less than competent. However had it not worked out that way with the tests, it was a safe place to fail and you do need an impartial picture of where her skills are at.

Anyway, this is getting long so I will end but feel free to ask any questions or PM me if you like. Definitely been there, done that.

ETA- we started homeschooling in 7th grade. She is now in 9th to give you a timeline. I took her all the way back to 6th and 7th grade work with CLE her 7th grade year to solidify her on decimals and fractions where she was terrible weak leaving public school, as well as basic multiplication skills. She's now on track in Algebra 1 holding an A average without a sweat. We school year round so I'm still hoping she can fit in Calculus possibly as DE her senior year. We shall see!